With me they get a solid foundation, the disciplines of learning. In my class they don't get away with hot… — Bel Kaufman

A teacher is frequently the only adult in the pupil's environment who treats him with respect.

My words never reached him; I could almost hear them drop, one by one, like so many pebbles against a closed window.

Paul asks how I would have handled a love letter from a student. I don't know — by talking, maybe, by listening. I don't know.

How sad that we don't hear each other — any of us.

Major issues are submerged by minor ones; catastrophes by absurdities.